


Truly, madly, deeply

by Elisexyz



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Established Relationship, F/M, Season/Series 01
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-10
Updated: 2018-04-10
Packaged: 2019-04-21 05:30:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,210
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14277930
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elisexyz/pseuds/Elisexyz
Summary: “Jemma,” he says, raising his hands up in a placating gesture. He tries to keep his voice even and to not look more suspicious than he already does, but she keepsstaringat him and it feels like it’s piercing his soul. “I’m a spy,” he states, throwing a small smile her way. “There’s plenty of stuff that I’m keeping from you merely because it’s above your clearance level.”Jemma’s arms are still crossed, and she doesn’t look convinced, at all. Grant really hates aliens.





	Truly, madly, deeply

**Author's Note:**

> For the Tumblr prompt: [Biospecialist + proposal](http://heytheredeann.tumblr.com/post/172801017729/hey-this-isnt-on-the-prompt-list-but-could-i).

“Jemma,” he says, raising his hands up in a placating gesture. He tries to keep his voice even and to not look more suspicious than he already does, but she keeps _staring_ at him and it feels like it’s piercing his soul. “I’m a spy,” he states, throwing a small smile her way. “There’s plenty of stuff that I’m keeping from you merely because it’s above your clearance level.”

Jemma’s arms are still crossed, and she doesn’t look convinced, at all. Grant really hates aliens.

His track record with them is awful: that stupid staff, Jemma almost _dying_ of an unknown virus, an Asgardian bitch toying with his brain— and now this guy shows up to go after people who lie to their partners. Apparently, the motive was a mix of intolerance for dishonesty and secrets in his culture and him getting his heart broken by a lying, cheating partner – Grant can’t say that he feels sorry in the _least_ , considering the strain that this stupid thing is putting in his relationship; he’s tempted to find a way to get ten minutes alone with the guy before they ship him off, so that he can make him feel _sorry_ for it.

His back is giving him hell after being smashed against a wall by some alien on steroids, his face hurts where the guy managed to land a right hook, and _years_ of him carefully toying with the line between _Grant_ and Agent Ward of SHIELD to make his relationship with Jemma as authentic as possible are about to go to waste because X-man got his heart broken and doesn’t like liars. Fantastic.

“That would be a perfectly good explanation,” Jemma comments, her tone flat. “If you weren’t acting so _guilty_.”

Grant bites back a grunt of frustration. He eyes the rest of the team, waiting outside of the lab as they have their little chat: May and Coulson are at least pretending not to be spying on them, but Fitz and Skye are shamelessly staring through the glass. Even if Grant wanted to break it to Jemma that Hydra is still a thing and that he’s knees deep into it – and he _doesn’t_ , that has to be planned very carefully or not happen at all, preferably –, he couldn’t do it in front of an audience.

“Jem—”

“The truth,” she cuts him off. “I thought we didn’t lie to each other,” she adds, and she sounds _hurt_. It makes his stomach twist unpleasantly.

He needs a solution, and a quick one. He can’t feed her some bullshit about him cheating at a board game or anything innocent like that – as much as they have proof in the form of a guy who’s going to spend a very long time in an hospital bed that the alien _isn’t_ above going after people for something as simple as faking a stomach-ache to avoid attending a party with his girlfriend, he would have had no reason not to come out with it earlier –, and he most certainly _can’t_ have the Hydra talk with her, that leaves—

There’s a bump in his jacket, which reminds him that he’s been carrying a ring around for a few weeks now. It’s just a coincidence that he grabbed _this_ jacket today, and if he was a more spiritual man he might call it fate. But hell, there’s a _reason_ why he hasn’t popped the question yet— plenty of them, actually.

As much as the idea of tying Jemma to him as soon as possible is appealing, as much as he’d _love_ to be able to call her his _wife_ , right now he has to worry about John’s intel, about balancing helping him and pretending to fight the Clairvoyant, about keeping Jemma herself safe during the ops, about working the team and _not_ treating Jemma as a target at the same time— there’s a _lot_ on his plate right now, where is he going to fit a wedding, exactly?

But then again, it doesn’t necessarily have to be _now_. They can talk about that, worry about the actual ceremony later. He kind of hates being _forced_ to do this, _and_ in the most boring and unoriginal way he can think of, but Jemma is still staring at him like she’s torn between slapping him and crying, and she seems to be more and more inclined towards the latter as the seconds pass, so he kind of has no other choice.

“Alright, alright,” he says, sighing. “I’ll tell you.”

Jemma visibly braces herself, and Grant throws an annoyed and a touch embarrassed glance at their team outside, because he knows that his cover wouldn’t be pleased at all with having to do this in a room with glass walls.

“I kept quiet about this because I wasn’t sure what you’d say,” he admits. “I’ve been thinking about how to do it for _weeks_ , and— and you deserve much better than me doing it like this, but—” He sticks his hand into his jacket, and the moment the little box is in sight Jemma’s eyes widen in understanding and shock. She takes a step back and her hands go up as if to cover her mouth, but she stops as her fingers brush her chin, her lips parting silently.

“Grant—” she calls, her voice strangled. The corners of her lips twitch upwards, and he gives her a small affectionate smile in return.

As he goes down on his knee, he keeps his eyes planted on Jemma, but he can still see Skye literally _jumping_ on her place, her hands on her mouth –  probably so that she doesn’t start screaming –, Fitz staring at them in utter shock while even May and Coulson have stopped pretending to be ignoring them.

“Will you marry me?” he voices, and he makes it shier than he would have liked, for his cover’s sake, but there’s also a part of the real him that waits with trepidation for her answer, almost scared that it’s going to be a no.

She lets out a brief laugh, her eyes unmistakeably shiny as she nods with such force that for a moment he worries that she’ll wreck her neck. “Yes!” she says, and it comes out higher-pitched than normal, but it’s a beautiful sound. “Of course, I— of course I will,” she repeats, stepping towards him as he gets up, a huge grin spread on his face.

He doesn’t even bother putting the ring on her finger yet, preferring to pull her into a kiss as Skye decides that she’s waited enough and storms into the lab, applauding loudly— and she’s not even the only one, but Grant pays little to not attention to them as Jemma embraces him and laughs against his chest, the hurt and anger from before completely forgotten.

“I thought you didn’t want that,” she comments, looking up to him with tears still in her eyes and a huge, almost childlike smile on her face.

“I thought I wasn’t built for it,” he replies, softly. “Then I met you.”

As she pulls him down for another kiss, he thinks that it always feels nice when he can offer her the plain truth only to see that she loves the authentic parts of him as well.


End file.
